This relates to integrated circuits and more particularly, to integrated circuit devices such as programmable integrated circuits.
Integrated circuits often include hardwired (hard-coded) circuitry that is hardened upon fabrication of the integrated circuit. The hardwired circuitry can include transceiver circuitry that transmits and receives data across the integrated circuit or to other integrated circuits.
In practice, transceivers or other circuitry on the integrated circuit need to be initialized upon power up of the integrated circuit. For example, the transceivers typically need to be loaded with desired operational settings or parameters after power up. The integrated circuit includes a hardwired processor and a corresponding hardwired memory circuit that are dedicated to initialization and/or calibration of the transceiver. The hardwired processor performs initialization on the transceiver by executing initialization instructions stored on the hardwired memory circuit.
However, because the hardwired memory circuit is hardened during fabrication of the integrated circuit, the hardwired memory circuit has a limited and unincreasable storage capacity (i.e., a storage capacity that is set upon fabrication of the integrated circuit). Such limitations on the capacity of the hardwired memory circuit can inhibit the size and complexity of the initialization instructions that are stored on the hardwired memory circuit. This imposes a limit to the number and complexity of the initialization operations that can be performed on the transceiver, and can lead to undesirably high initialization latency for the integrated circuit upon power-up.